Singapore-listed retail and office REIT, Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust (MGCCT) (SGX:RW0U), announced on 27 October that it has achieved a distribution per unit (DPU) of 1.808 Singapore for its 2Q FY15/16, an increase of 12.6% over 1.606 Singapore cents paid in the corresponding quarter a year ago.
Correspondingly the REIT’s DPU for the period from 1 April 2015 to 30 September 2015 was 3.499 Singapore cents, an increase of 10.7% over the DPU of 3.162 Singapore cents for the same half last year.
Gross revenue and net property income (NPI) for the quarter increased by 25.4% and 26% to SGD84.6 and SGD69.4 million respectively over the previous quarter.
Cindy Chow, CEO of the REIT’s manager, has attributed the results mainly to new contribution from Sandhill Plaza and healthy rental reversions from Festival Walk and Gateway Plaza.
“The overall Hong Kong retail market has been impacted by the recent China stock market volatility and decline in Chinese tourist arrivals”, said Chow. “Festival Walk however remained resilient with continued increase in footfall driven primarily by local consumers”, she added. The property delivered 20.9% and 21.2% growth in gross revenue and NPI respectively for 2Q FY15/16 compared to the same quarter last year.
The REIT’s other initial property, Gateway Plaza, also recorded a high occupancy rate of 96.3% as of 30 September 2015.
Aggregate portfolio occupancy was at 98.4% as at 30 September 2015. Gearing ratio was at 41.0%, up from the 36.2% as at 31 March the same year mainly due to additional borrowings of HKD2,405 million to fund the acquisition of Sandhill Plaza. Portfolio weighted average lease expiry (WALE) by gross rental income was at 2.3 years.
Managers of the REIT has indicated that it is mindful of the uncertainty in the economic environment and interest rate hike expectations that may impact its portfolio performance and asset values. However it is confident that three properties in its portfolio will remain resilient and deliver a steady performance.
Units of MGCCT are currently listed on the Singapore Exchange at SGD0.99.